Negentropic Gaming -- First Night With Universalis

[CPXB]

Last night I played Universalis with some friends -- including Adrienne and John Marron from this board -- over at my place.  John M. is an experienced narrativist grognard; I'm a grognard, myself, but have mostly had experience with very traditional RPGs.  Adrienne is well on her way to being old and crusty with gaming experience, but she's probably the most "average" player we have, as well as having some GMing experience.  The fourth player, Josh, is very new to gaming.

We all agreed the game is very, very good.  Me and the li'l woman ordered ourselves a copy of Universalis that very night.  When we get it, I'm going to introduce it to my group and I might be so seduced by the game that I'll either drop the game I'm currently in or adapt it to using Universalis rules.  The game is virtually everything I ever wanted in a game -- it is universal, easy to master, but provides endless complexity.  And unlike every other generic RPG, it actually does handle all genres equally well.  I haven't been this impressed with a game since Mutants and Masterminds (which I adored for many of the same reasons: simplicity and clarity).  And while I am fairly sure that Univesalis won't come to rule my gaming with an iron fist, I am sure that I will come back to this game.

The actual session was, I gather, fairly typical of Universalis: all these diverse plot elements that, over the course of the game, started to make coherent sense.  I was reminded of the work of the biochemist Ilya Prigogne, and how a negentropic open system tended to resolve itself in higher levels of order -- watching the game progress was very much like watching a crystal grow or, well, life evolve (metaphorically, of course).

I found nothing truly worthy of note that was wrong with the game, either.  I have rarely, if ever, seen a game that was so totally . . . complete.

As RPGs go, Universalis is a work of art.  It's, like, the Sistine Chapel of gaming.  I know I'm gushing a lot, and I'm normally a very critical person, but this game has left me deeply impressed.  I hope that my gaming group falls for it the same way I have.

So, Ralph and Mike, great job!

[Bob McNamee]

Just out of curiousity, since there is another Thread about the issue, how many Tenets did your group establish before starting the first Scene?

Were there any interesting Challenges, either solved through negotiation or actual Coin bidding?

What was the game-like story-wise?

Do you intend to keep running Uni sessions of that game?

Any problems with Complications? (Ties, etc) (Did everyone like how the narration followed on?)

[as a note: one of the more interesting events is the occassional case where the Winning side gets less coins than the Losing side of a Complication]

Any Rules Gimmicks added? [edited in]

Hope to hear more from all new players of Universalis!

Fellow Universalis fiend,

Bob McNamee

[CPXB]

Just out of curiousity, since there is another Thread about the issue, how many Tenets did your group establish before starting the first Scene?

I'll just write 'em all down, here:

* We're superspies
* Decadent empire
* Large pack animals -- larger than elephants
* Alternate late Victorian era
* Lighter than air craft
* We're working for the Catholic Church
* Fighting the Illuminati
* Alternate, indigenous religion
* Pliocene animals aren't extinct
* The Illuminati controls the Nazis
* Nazis are the occult and intellectual arm of the Illuminati
* Indigenous people have some sort of technological advantage
* Race to find a lost city

I, personally, thought this was a trifle too much, and in the actual play we didn't get to a fair number of them -- we didn't get to the decadent empire, pack animals, Pliocene critters or indigenous people.  If we had continued play we would have, however, I am sure.

Were there any interesting Challenges, either solved through negotiation or actual Coin bidding?

We did not have any challenges, at least not formally.  I almost started a challenge just to see how it worked, but I couldn't create the emotional energy to do it.  It would have been a purely mechanical exercise and the concept is so simple that I didn't feel the urge to explore it mechanically.

The closest we got to a challenge is when I introduced some Nazi stormtroopers into the scene and John disagreed with the sort of weapons they should have -- I was visualizing them with submachineguns in the MP-40 category, while he was visualizing them with, basically, portable gatling guns that would fit the Victorian era better.  I relented immediately, however, 'cause he was basically right.

What was the game-like story-wise?

The game, storywise, began unfocused -- with a character, Francois du Maurier, a Catholic superspy, stumbling into some Vatican offices and collasping after muttering something about Nazi plans.  The scene changed to a hotel room where Reginald Smythe gave Francois some Papal orders -- then, because I wanted to try out the complication rules we were attacked by a new sort of Nazi aircraft (which would then become the Sturmgeist VII).  From there, really, I think the path was set -- the game was steampunk in an anime sort of sense.  It was revealed that Francois had a bionic arm with a mini-grenade launcher -- all very baroque.  Well, they drove the plane off with the help of the Swiss guard Fritz.  Then the scene switched to an airship headed . . . well, eventually it would be headed towards the Hindu-Kush, but no-one knew that at the time.  A fourth protagonist was revealed, Isabel Delacourt, and the Orichalcum Sphere which was from a hidden colony of Atlanteans in the . . . Hindu-Kush.  Perhaps connected to the rest of Atlantis by the Sea of Valusia.  More Nazis attacked; this time lead by the dastardly Colonel von Metrick -- who turned out to be a sorcerer!  Egads!  Like I said, steampunk in an anime "anything goes" sort of sense.  ;)  Well, the protagonists escape via gliders, Francois and von Metrick trade shots . . . .

Which brings me to a new almost challenge.  I was controlling Francois and John thought that a Catholic superspy wouldn't risk destroying the zeppelin by using his mini-grenade launcher to attack von Metrick (who killed Francois's brother).  So I just added that the bionic arm had, also, a mini-automatic-speargun to avoid the challenge.  So we were definitely negotiating, there.

And von Metrick gets wounded and knocked unconscious (we were all amused that von Metrick's wounds gave him more importance and thus made it harder for him to die).  

Then the gliders were attacked by the Sturmgeist VIIs.  It was an interesting complication.  In the first complication, the Sturmgeists won and so I, handling the Sturmgeists, had them attack and do damage but no-one on the loosing side of the complication either had the protagonists escape or exit the Sturmgeists so after that complication there was, immediately, another complication.  This time, the protagonists won -- after it was revealed that Isabel is also a sorcerer -- and destroyed most of the Sturmgeist VIIs and driving off the sole remaining one.

We had to end there for time reasons. *shakes fist at the heavens*  Things were going well.

Do you intend to keep running Uni sessions of that game?

I think we'd like to, but one of the players has a very irregular schedule so by the time we get around to playing with that group, again, so much time might have passed that we would loose the vibe.

Any problems with Complications? (Ties, etc) (Did everyone like how the narration followed on?)

Yeah, there was a complication with the complications.  In the first complication, someone took control of an element after its resources had been committed to the complication -- but that was more because we were new with the rules than anything.  I think everyone liked the way the narration followed; I did.  Once we get everything nailed down, I'm sure it'll be smooth as silk.

[as a note: one of the more interesting events is the occassional case where the Winning side gets less coins than the Losing side of a Complication]

Something of this sort did happen.  When I was controlling Francois and he attacked von Metrick I did it solely to get more coins -- I was running out! -- and the player who was playing von Metrick added a couple of new traits to him and von Metrick was actually rolling with a bigger pool (4 dice to 3).  However, when the bones rolled, we got the same number of successes and Francois had a higher value on his success dice so *he* got the edge die -- in the next roll Francois's luck held and he won the challenge so I had a lot of fun describing the way blows were traded back and forth between them.  At the end of it was I was actually POORER than when I started the challenge, but it was so cool I didn't care.  ;)

Any Rules Gimmicks added? [edited in]

Nah, we didn't get to any rules gimmicks.  Maybe next time.  ;)

[Bob McNamee]

That sounds like a really fun game!

I'm a fan of the Indiana Jone's style games...

Hopefully you can get a chance to run more in it.

Universalis is good for games where the numbers of players change between sessions. The indie-netgaming games, like the Kroollian Jungle games had different players, with a core of steady players in each of the 5 or 6 sessions.

In these cases it helps to have good bookkeeping, and perhaps even a synopsis of past play (narration of scenes etc.)

For our IRC play we are helped by the chat software's logging function. We can always reread what happened in previous games, and the Components and such are easily updated in Notepad.

In person I keep most Component notes of 3x5 inch notecards of various colors so I can tell the difference between Tenets, characters, items, and locations.

[Mike Holmes]

Thanks for the very high praise. It's always good to know that people are enjoying playing the game. :-)

Sounds like a good group of players, and a nifty story that you came up with as well.

I, personally, thought this was a trifle too much, and in the actual play we didn't get to a fair number of them -- we didn't get to the decadent empire, pack animals, Pliocene critters or indigenous people.  If we had continued play we would have, however, I am sure.

This is typical, actually. There are often one or two things left dangling in one session games. I sometimes feel a pang of guilt for not having gotten to those things, but in the end I think it's better to play "naturalisitcally" rather than trying to force everything in.

What I will say is that components and locations are often best left to play, and not included in the Tenet phase. Because only by introducing them in play can you be assured that they'll get into play (or, from another POV, that they'll be pertinent to the play that exists). As such, I personally try to stick with broader tenets than some.

We did not have any challenges, at least not formally.  I almost started a challenge just to see how it worked, but I couldn't create the emotional energy to do it.  It would have been a purely mechanical exercise and the concept is so simple that I didn't feel the urge to explore it mechanically.

And that's fine. If you aren't feeling the need, then there shouldn't be a Challenge. Challenges work on the concept of legal enforcement - people refrain from breaking the law because they are afraid of the repercussions. In Universalis, just the idea that something could be challenged is often enough to keep people playing in a manner so "tight" that nothing ever does need to be Challenged.

The closest we got to a challenge is when I introduced some Nazi stormtroopers into the scene and John disagreed with the sort of weapons they should have -- I was visualizing them with submachineguns in the MP-40 category, while he was visualizing them with, basically, portable gatling guns that would fit the Victorian era better.  I relented immediately, however, 'cause he was basically right.

That was a challenge, and executed perfectly. A challenge doesn't mean that you neccessarily want the other person to change, so much as you don't see what the other player is doing, or why. Once you ask, and the person clarifies, then your "objection" often goes away. Hence this sort of informal challenge acts as a fact finding mission. Only when the answers are unsatisfactory do you then proceed to social pressure to change, and Coins if neccessary.

Which brings me to a new almost challenge ... So we were definitely negotiating, there.

Which is a challenge. Again, IME, only a small number of challenges ever go on to Coin bidding. Players understand that this is inefficient, and it gives both sides strong incentive to compromise. This is all part of the process.

And von Metrick gets wounded and knocked unconscious (we were all amused that von Metrick's wounds gave him more importance and thus made it harder for him to die).  

When I ran the game for John Wick, this got a big smile out of him as well. If there's no other indicator in the game that the rules are intended to follow dramatic formulae, this one does for sure. Story logic, not "what would happen" logic.

I think we'd like to, but one of the players has a very irregular schedule so by the time we get around to playing with that group, again, so much time might have passed that we would loose the vibe.[/wuote]I've often said this is true. People have to be excited about continued play, and long periods can quash that. Also, new players seem to often play a "starter" game that isn't continued later, instead moving onto something else.

In any case, in the future, consider some discussion of whether people want a single session story, or one that lasts multiple sessions.

Just some thoughts. Thanks again for the kind remarks.

Mike